Help Moroz

According to news just received from Moscow, the Ukrainian political prisoner Valentin Moroz was transferred on May 10 from Vladimir Prison to the Serbsky Institute of Forensic Psychiatry for a psychiatric examination. Moroz—who is forty years old—has served six years of a fourteen-year sentence in Vladimir Prison on charges of anti-Soviet propaganda; his hunger strike in 1974 aroused worldwide concern. He is a teacher of history, the author of Amidst the Snows, From the Beria Reserve, Dathan and Moses, among other works. He has been adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

This latest action threatens Moroz with involuntary confinement in a psychiatric hospital, a fate many Soviet prisoners consider worse than prison or labor camp. Reports indicate that psychiatrists at the Serbsky Institute will soon make the decision on Moroz’s “sanity” that will decide his fate. It is urgent that all those interested in Moroz’s freedom send cables to Moscow expressing their concern about his transfer to the Serbsky Institute. Such cables should also request that his wife Mrs. Raisa Moroz be permitted to choose a psychiatrist to take part in any examination given him. Cables should be addressed to Dr. A. Snezhevsky, Director, Serbsky Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, Kropotkinsky Pereulok 23, Moscow USSR. A copy should be sent to Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, Embassy of USSR, 1125 16th NW, Washington, DC 20036.